Bass, lasers & holograms: Coachella 2012 video highlights

After a solid three days of vicarious living, the Coachella live stream has come to a close. Kicking off on Friday in the Indio desert, the first weekend of the sprawling festival boasted some serious drawcards: untouchable indie heroes Radiohead, West Coast originals Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg, pyro-crazed trio the Swedish House Mafia and a fleet of established and hotly-tipped acts. Luckily for all of us playing at home, many of the key sets were beamed out live through Coachella’s YouTube channel.

Dance music ruled at the Mojave and Sahara stages, but most of it didn’t make the broadcast. On Friday, Sahara heaved with bigger-is-better sets from Alesso, Afrojack and Datsik, while on Saturday is was over to Sebastian Ingrosso, David Guetta and Kaskade to ensure the atmosphere stayed at fever pitch.

Sunday’s Sahara schedule was an even spread of hyperactive bass business (Noisia, Nero and Flux Pavilion & Doctor P led that charge) and big-tent house. The final set fell to high-flying Swede Avicii. The Mojave stage was more of a mixed bag thanks to M83, Amon Tobin’s ISAM Live and a barnstorming Sunday set from Modeselektor.

For its Friday closing set on the mainstage, the Swedish House Mafia pulled out all stops with a towering DJ podium, fireworks show and battalion of lasers. However, their big-budget thrills couldn’t outshine the final night performance from Dr Dre and Snoop, who rallied together Eminem, 50 Cent and, yes, a creepy/awesome hologram of Tupac.

One sore point for dance fans was the short set from Justice on the mainstage. “Sorry we couldn’t play a full set due to big technical issues,” the duo wrote on its Facebook page. “We couldn’t do anything about it, apart from doing our best; it was fun though! See you next week for a full powered show.”

Justice

Modeselektor

Swedish House Mafia

SBTRKT

Frank Ocean

Snopp Dogg and a holographic Tupac

Miike Snow

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